Map Shows What Happens To New York Airspace When Air Force One Comes To Town Clusterstock. I’d love a map of what it does to street traffic. I’ve seen a (presumably divorced) father unable to get his under 10 year old daughter back home to her mother due to an Obama fundraiser. No one was being allowed to leave their buildings or enter the block for a two plus hour period, meaning that not only could the father (or even the daughter alone) get home, the mother could not come to the police barricade to escort her daughter either. Similarly, during an earlier fundraiser, it was pretty much impossible to get out of midtown any other way than on foot (avenues were hopelessly backed up, so busses and taxis were out, and the subways were jam packed and pretty much unworkable. As a result, I walked 30+ blocks home. Thank God I was on the correct side of the avenue when I started my hike. Police weren’t letting people cross Park Avenue over a huge cordoned area. Even showing an ID with an address cut no ice with the cops (I saw people pleading and getting nowhere).

Chicago teachers strike. Back to work: “The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates decided this afternoon to end the city’s first teacher strike in 25 years and return more than 350,000 students to the classroom Wednesday. After the vote, Delegates poured out of the union hall singing ‘Solidarity Forever.'” … Still no contract: “[CTU President Karen] Lewis said the entire membership of the union will cast a formal vote in the next two weeks to ratify a new contract agreement.” … FTW, Diane Ravitch: “[T]he union pitted itself against Rahm Emanuel, Arne Duncan, Chicago’s business and civic leadership, and the Race to the Top. It took on the most powerful forces in the city, and yes, even President Obama, who remained neutral. And by taking a stand, by uniting to resist the power elite, these teachers discovered they were strong. They put on their red T-shirts and commanded the attention of the nation and the admiration of millions of teachers. Powerless no more, they showed that unity made them strong. 98% voted to authorize the strike, and 98% voted to end it.”

MD. Debt: “After Regina Friend’s son committed suicide last year, she was at least relieved to know that the loans he took out to pay for his Temple University degree were forgiven. But now, the Cockeysville woman has learned she faces a hefty tax bill on those canceled loans. ‘I thought I was done,’ she said. Then in June she spoke to her tax preparer, who told her that she will owe an estimated $14,000. According to IRS rules, loans that are forgiven in the case of death or permanent disability are treated as income.” … Unions: “With time running out before the contract expires, the union representing 14,500 longshoremen on the East and Gulf coasts and the port employers’ organization will meet Wednesday morning with a federal mediator to try to avert the first strike in 35 years.”

ME. Penobscots: “Matthew Manahan of [politically wired out-of-state trash advocates] Pierce Atwood LLP contacted 10 municipalities and six companies he said have an interest in the lawsuit, in which the [Penobscot] nation is seeking an injunction to keep ME game wardens from policing the river and preventing tribal members from engaging in sustenance fishing. ‘This lawsuit could have significant consequences for non-Indian waste discharge licensees discharging into the river or its tributaries,’ he wrote.”

PA. Voting: “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a 4 to 2 decision this afternoon, has vacated a Commonwealth Court’s earlier ruling, which had denied a temporary injunction on the state GOP’s polling place Photo ID restriction law. Rather than issuing their own injunction, they have has sent the matter back to the lower court for review.” … Fracking: “A group of environmental and community planning organizations, as well as government entities, filed a series of amicus briefs with the PA Supreme Court in support of a Commonwealth Court decision that found Act 13 unconstitutional. This PA law would have permitted fracking virtually everywhere in the Commonwealth without any regard to community character or the existing local economy.” …. Small towns: “The median population of a NJ municipality is about 22,000; in PA, it is 1,900.”

VA. Tea party: “This is not to denigrate the Tea Party. I may not agree with most of the views of Tea Party leader Jamie Ratdke, who lost a primary fight for U.S. senator to George Allen, but I respect her and realize she’s not exactly a nut case.” Not exactly.

WI. Money: “The Wisconsin Realtors Association funneled more than $1 million to [the Club for Growth], against the wishes of some members whose dues funded this contribution.” … Fracking: “[U]sing job-site estimates developed by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation*, found that when existing mines and those being built are fully operating, the [fracking sand] industry will employ about 2,780 people.” [* I’m wary. WEDC is not *.gov, but *.org.] … Unions: “State AG Van Hollen on Tuesday asked a Dane County judge to hold off enforcement of his ruling that overturned much of a controversial collective bargaining law until the state has appealed the decision.”

Legacy parties. Jerseys: “‘Remember,’ he said. ‘We all wear blue jerseys and play for the Blue Team.'” I’ve been using the jersey as a metaphor for tribalism for years. But I didn’t know insiders used it, too.

From the Barcalounger: Ya know, I’m happy to pass the popcorn — not least because damaging either legacy party wins merit — if and while The Romney explodes, but anybody who thinks blowing the Mittster into a million little pieces will prevent a collective diet of Grand Bargain™-brand Cat Food is delusional. Official Washington is committed to that policy, and The Obama is personally committed to it. Very happy to be wrong, but have you heard “Not one penny of cuts” from The Obama? No?

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“A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel
looking as though he is about to move away from something
he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his
mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward
the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one
single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet.

The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.”

‘[Microsoft] says that subscribers will be given unspecified “updates” to add new features and capabilities over the life of their subscription.’

This is a ‘feature’ that I would pay not to receive. Microsoft has a long-established habit of messing up what already works, to make the user interface and features even more unintuitive and opaque than they already are.

The last thing you want, after taking the time to master these bloated-horror applications, is to wake up one morning and find that they’ve jerked the rug out from under you with a ‘new, improved’ user interface in an update.

All that means is hours of googling to find out where the simple functions that you normally use have now been concealed, complicated and degraded.

Another aspect of the attempt to turn earned profits into unearned rental streams, in this case with intellectual property rights.
We would be better off having things like such foundational software done by some type of temporary organization that can mostly be wound down when the largest part of the work is one. No one should be allowed to generate a rental stream (or even higher one-time sales) price due to a monopoly that arises due to the nature of the market. Adobe, Word, etc. are not monopolies because they are or were so overwhelmingly superior to the competition, but because our need to use compatible programs means that in the end, someone will get a monopoly or near-monopoly.

Friends;
G– I hate my job, matey, aargh! Should make a good saying for the day me buckoes.
Avast! But ye hadn’t said just what kind of Pyrates we must spoke alike! So, with the shadow of the noose hanging over me like a NYPD checkpoint tween office and lunch wagon, I’ll try an talk like those other famous Pyrates, Merchant Bankers! (Cue Monty Pythons, “The Crimson Permanent Assurance.”)
As for “Map of..” Well me hearties, ain’t that how every paranoid and frightened Caudillo and Tinpot Tyrant spends his, (or her,) days? What’s the use of being head of a big heartless police state if no one wants to kill you? Eh? (Let’s not get sidetracked by Squeaky Fromme now. Or the idiot who tried to get Reagan, [the Antichrists John the Baptist,] and didn’t practice shooting first!) The best part is, why weren’t the fundraising entities told to pay for the “protection” of the guest of (dis)honour? Isn’t that state support for a political faction? The waters get murky about here. (“Here be monsters.” the map says.)

The pirate responded:
“Aye, 3 weks agor a conn’n ball took me leg. Now juss this peg to use.”

“Thin 2 weks ago I gave up my h’nd in a sword duel.”

“Thin 13 days agre a cursed bird shat in me eye.”

The bartender, perplexed, said, “But you have a patch over it; certainly a little guano would not cost you an eye.”

With a chagrin grin the pirate told him, “Well, it were my first day wit der hook…”

**Arrr, so ye be wantin’ t’ go to sea an’ ye don’t be wantin’ t’ end up in Davy Jones’ Locker. Then ye best be learnin’ t’ be talkin’ like a buccaneer. (a pirate translator – translates your sentence/phrase into pirate speak) http://www.syddware.com/cgi-bin/pirate.pl

Pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel stuck down the front of his pants. Bartender says “Hey matey, you’ve got a steering wheel down the front of your pants”. Pirate says “Arrgh, and it’s drivin’ me nuts”.

I appreciate this as well, and I’m not a fan of either the challenger or the incumbent. Many citizens are already aware of both the profound lack of true policy choices represented by both major party candidates, and the particular constituencies both truly support.

This gave me the idea that all politician speeches should be converted into Pirate speech so people will stop taking them seriously.

To test this, I tried running an excerpt from Obama’s State of the Union 2012 into Pirate speak and came up with the following:

Think ’bout th’ America within our reach: a country that leads th’ seven seas in educatin’ its swabbies..

We can do ‘this. I be knowin’ we can, on accoun’ o’ we done it before.

Me grandfather, got th’ chance to be a pirate apprentice… me grandmother.. They understood they be part o’ somethin’ larger, that they be contributin’ t’ a story o’ success that ev’r American had a chance ta share: th’ basic American promise that if ye worked harrd, ye could do well that be all I can take t’ raise a family, own a homeport, send yer lads t’ pirate apprentice, an’ put a wee bit away fer retirement.

Th’ definin’ issue o’ the hour be how t’ keep that promise alive. Nay challenge be more urgent. Nay debate be more important. We can either settle fer a country ‘ere a shrinkin’ number o’ swabbies do really well, while a growin’ number o’ ‘Muricans barely get by, or we can restore an economy ‘ere sea dogs an` land lubbers gets a fair shot, an’ sea dogs an’ land lubbers does th’r fair share, an’ sea dogs an’ land lubbers plays by th’ same set o’ rules.

The American people would actually be quite leftist if policy ideas were fairly presented and debated and we had a real democracy.

This subject is a perfect example. In about 75 years we ruined one of the biggest achievements of the left–the public education system. The pedagogy over these 75 years hasn’t been great (teaching American exceptional ism for e.g.) but we used to have a much more democratic system.

Even Democrats are now right-wingers when it comes to public education so I think your defense of them rings hollow.

I tried responding to you the other day on the subject of conspiracy theories, but for some reason WordPress kept eating my comments.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a back-up copy, but briefly I just wanted to say that for anyone interested in the truth, it’s probably better to set up a thought experiment and approach things from the point of view of a conspiracy theorist: never believe a single word we’re told, assume the media is always lying, that the official version is the least likely of all, then take it from there and see where this leads.

However we shouldn’t necessarily “believe” the conspiracy theory either, just use this as an open-ended way of approaching information and interpreting the world.

With this approach we might get it wrong sometimes, but not nearly as often as those people who still listen to the corporate media, or who still believe whatever politicians tell them.

Over at Penny’s place http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/ I saw someone describe anti-conspiracy theorists as “coincidence theorists.” In other words, whenever there is an interesting connection that leads to a possible connection authoritarian or conventional thinkers immediately discount it as a “coincidence.”

That’s why we see conspiracy theories being ridiculed–to train people to be coincidence theorists that blindly trust the “official” story.

But you’re right that “conspiracy theorists” are generally using the scientific method more than their opponents. It’s those hostile to CT that are close-minded and anti science and anti logic. I sometimes state my conspiracy theories in more absolute terms than is warranted, but this isn’t because I think the theory is the absolute truth. I do it more to be provocative and to test these theories out. I will admit that I don’t have the absolute truth more than those that are conventional thinkers.

For me the best test of this is the ‘JFK-staged-assassination-theory’ and showing people the (lack of) blood evidence. I find it interesting to see people I consider intelligent immediately discount it.

Many people I show this too show extreme cognitive dissonance. But how do you explain this evidence? If Jackie rode for 10 minutes or so in the limo sitting in that pool of blood why doesn’t she have more blood on her dress on her backside? How do you explain the cop spraying something?

I know you are open to this evidence but most people have been trained to discount it . . .

As a side note that may be of interest to someone here, Lisa Pease, the JFK assassination researcher gently taken to task by Culto in the above thread at Let’s Roll (around the comment I link to above), posts at Booman Tribune and Daily Kos, it looks like, and reads this blog I think.

Culto is definitely onto something in naming names like he does with Jim DiEugeni and John Simkin and identifying the gatekeeper community in general. This gatekeeper tactic is very common imho, and relates to the Watergate/WaPo Psy Op mentioned by SR below.

It’s also interesting to see how the 9/11 research at Let’s Roll and similar places is treated in similar progressive circles (like at Willyloman’s place or Jim Fetzer, etc.).

I always enjoy your comments, and thanks for reminding me of those photographs.

Or we could go back to the Watergate scandal for a moment, as understanding this might give us another way of looking at current events.

In the Watergate “scandal” there was no difference between the facts and their denunciation, identical methods were used by both the Washington Post journalists and the CIA.

Constructing a thought experiment around Watergate, looking at it as a conspiracy theorist, we might say the Watergate scandal was Psy/Ops designed to fool the public into believing that Watergate was a scandal; in other words, Watergate was designed to trick the rubes into believing politics is essentially a moral enterprise and this was an aberration.

Something that almost never happened, most politicians being so moral and righteous…

But fortunately, all this wickedness was exposed by the honest, do-right, investigative journalists of the Washington Post. With investigative journalists having ridden in on their white horses and saved the day, politicians went back to being good again.

The public was reassured after Watergate because they believed that if some politician ever got out of line in the future, honest investigative journalists like Woodward and Bernstein would be all over it, and it would be exposed on the front page of WaPo and the NY Times. And the rogue politician would have some explaining to do. (At least that’s the fairy tale that Watergate helped to impose in the public’s mind.)

Yeah right, honest investigative journalists like Bob Woodward, the same Bob Woodward whose skepticism and penetrating “intellect” helped him write a fawning, third-rate book about Alan Greenspan called “The Maestro”.

And so forth, similar thought experiments to the one above could be applied to a lot of current events (in place of the official versions) to help us examine them more critically.

Yep SR6719. I too think your theory is a viable theory. In fact, I think it is the most probable explanation for Watergate: it was a Psy-Op.

It’s fun to dig into all the facts that prove this conspiracy theory (like the incredible bungling by professional spooks), but looking at from 10,000 feet like you are doing is very helpful. You’re exactly right that it lionized the press. It built up their watchdog bone fides and got us to trust them.

And let’s not forget the Church Committee hearings and the subsequent “reforms” and the House hearing on the JFK assassination, which found the official story not viable). Both of these events in the 70s, along with Watergate and the publication of the Pentagon Papers, encouraged Americans to think that heroes in Congress or a watchdog press are looking out for the little guys. This couldn’t be more false. (the one hero may have been the only U.S. Rep. to die during service of his duties–at Jonestown)

And the operations continue, I’m almost certain. And some of the names haven’t changed, I suspect! Daniel Ellsberg is suing the Obama administration (along with Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky, etc.) over the NDAA. I now suspect all of these people of carrying out a modern version of the Watergate Psy-Op. In fact, I suspect the use of the courts to do these types of operations is very prevalent now. Who knows what level of complicity the judges have–of course the plaintiffs in the Chris Hedges et al. case got to choose the venue. Plus, it’s likely a side show anyway.

These Psy-Ops are all related in the sense that they use a complicit media and fake democratic process to carry out their propaganda. This is the main form of control TPTB exert over us; the myth of democracy and a free press. The media was taken over in this country about 100 years ago. See this site for a good description of this early history and the connection to Anti-Hun Hysteria and the World Wars (I’ve just discovered this information recently so there may be better sources as well): http://www.exulanten.com/hysteria.html

Also, re the grand conspiracy theories of the 70s, I think these media Psy-Ops of Watergate and the Pentagon Papers were meant to cover up real geopolitical maneuvering. We had Nixon go off the gold standard, and then U.S. domestic policy changed to offshore jobs to China and elsewhere which eroded America’s industrial base. I now wonder if the Cultural Revolution was inspired/fomented by the U.S. or if there are another ‘conspiracy theories’ that explain this policy shift from within China.

Anyway, I agree with you Watergate has been really effective at controlling people. But that is fading imho. There is widespread distrust of the media, but now the control has changed so that we are barraged with different media from different angles that we are still collectively confused. More confused that ever, but at the same time the truth may be more accessible.

Your comment left a lot for me to consider, I need to re-read it tomorrow morning, and check out the links.

Due to another commitment, I won’t have time to continue this discussion today, but wanted to mention a couple of quick things.

First, the other day regular NC commenter Fiver wrote: “..I have to insist that any honest, objective observer looking at current US government spending across all programs would conclude that at least 90% of military/security spending is a total waste….and quite deliberately so given how much of the money is directed into pockets that don’t actually need it….”

And you wrote above: “…This is the main form of control TPTB exert over us; the myth of democracy and a free press… I think these media Psy-Ops of Watergate and the Pentagon Papers were meant to cover up real geopolitical maneuvering…”

So trying to put these two statements together (without tearing my hair out) what it boils down to is this:

Fiver: almost all government spending is deliberately WASTED (i.e., directed into pockets that are already rich)

and

WWM: almost everything that we’re told is a LIE.

But wait, that’s not all.

The only part where I disagree with you is that I don’t see any signs the public is catching on to any of this looting or deception.

Not sure what to make of this (I need a drink, better make that a whiskey on the rocks!) so for now I’ll leave you with a quote from Guy Debord:

“In a world that has REALLY been turned on its head, truth is a moment of falsehood. ”

Well, they are being asked to work more (longer school year) and throughout the entire country schools have been closed and teachers fired while money is steered to Charter schools and the private sector.

I misread the description before I clicked through and frankly don’t know if this is a win, lose, or draw from the labor pov.

I still think this labor dispute could be a coordinated strategy to have the effect you describe with the goal of making Americans oppose labor concessions.

But you know what policy should have been promoted by the Democrats? Instead of the Fed giving $40 billion a month to bankers the Fed (or better yet Congress) should have ‘printed’ greenbacks and given it to public schools across the country. We should be hiring teachers rather than laying them off.

Jim — as a free American you could have chosen to enter the workforce in a public sector job with a defined benefit plan. Apparently you didn’t, preferring to work in the private sector without a defined benefit plan. Why, then, do you vent your ire at public employees who freely made choices different than yours? Misplaced anger does not make a persuasive argument.

But there’s another option, Jim. Why don’t all the struggling private sector wage earners get together and demand higher wages and pensions — if you had chosen to become a public sector plumber you would have a defined benefit plan. The point is not that public employees have it “too good” — it’s that private employees have been subject to stagnating wages since 1970 (and rising health insurance costs, and inflation of just about everything) but somehow opted into the “borrow to keep up” option rather than organize to unionize or to demand higher wages and pensions as mandates from elected officials.

There is a reason why non-union wages were as high as they were once upon a time — union wages set a benchmark for the whole wage market.

Let’s deconstruct this a bit… all 3 are members of the 1% and the Roosevelts (FDR is shown sporting a cigarette holder – a total rich man cliché) and Kennedys in their heyday were much more elite/prominent than the Romneys are today. Two of the sketches show Dem presidents who were making well honed partisan public speeches geared toward the little people liking and approving of them, and one of them is a Repub presidential candidate who was caught unawares. Does anyone really believe that Roosevelt and Kennedy didn’t make derogatory wisecracks about the little people when speaking in private with their friends, colleagues, family?

The cartoon is still chuckle worthy, and thanks for posting it (I love cartoons!)… but only Dem partisans would take that message seriously.

Know one really wants to understand the funny walk or the Arrgghhh Pirate thingo.

I mean whats up with all the phallic wood ie Pining, Log cabins, Wooden legs jutting out of ones trousers, that guy that commented ages back… that all wars were man on man phallic exorcises (lol), folks that like boats getting – Nailed – to a wooden cross with ambiguous sexuality inferred (one day celibate, the next hetro, then homo and back to hetro?).

Skippy… one could observe, that the hole limping around the decks uttering arrgghh… arrgghhh…. precedes the jail house signaling of wearing ones undergarments too high and trousers too low. That went viral in a weird way…. eh.

Do you want to know what Mitt Silverspoon Romney is doing that must be terrifying the oligarchs? He’s putting a face on our faceless dictatorship. He just took a big spotlight and shined it right under that that big slimy rock. And the evil ones lurking behind the filthy, shredded curtains under that rock are starting to come into view. And they look like Snidely Whiplash and Freddy Kruger even in their three piece suits, and they are holding strawberry parfaits. And the American people are finally – thanks to brother Mitt – getting a glimpse at them, even on corporate tv; and they must be terrified. Becasue these aren’t people who want to be seen. As Mitt fills the dark halls of power with his vile fog, their ghostly faces are starting to come into view. And Americans aren’t liking what they see, lots of Americans, lots and lots of Americans, as they squint through the putrid haze. Thanks Mitt! Good job buddy! But my guess is that your days of free strawberry parfaits are numbered.

Poor Mitt. After working so feverishly for the Obama campaign, first in 2008 and again this year, he could still win this thing. Dang! Time to hire a harem of male prostitutes

But we shouldn’t be so hard on Mitt. For his inelegant remarks, The Onion carried his far more elegant apology:

“’First and foremost, I would like to offer a heartfelt apology to all the whores, junkies, bums, and grime-covered derelicts out there who make up nearly half our nation,’ a visibly contrite and solemn Romney said . . . ‘Let me assure you that I in no way meant to offend any of the putrid-smelling, barefoot masses out there. My campaign is not about dividing this nation, but about bringing all sides together — the rich, elegant members of the upper class, as well as the 47 percent who are covered in flies and eat directly from back-alley dumpsters.’”
…
“In an effort to right his campaign and rebuild his image, Romney promised to bring his message of compassion and economic opportunity to the ‘ramshackle, mud-floored huts’ in which half of all U.S. residents live.

“’Let me make this absolutely clear: I have the utmost respect for all of the filth-encrusted, lesion-covered degenerates of this nation,’ Romney said. ‘In the coming weeks, I look forward to meeting real Americans in their squalid, roach-infested hellholes in every corner of this country. I promise to stand up for every one of you, even the 47 percent of you huddled together for warmth, fighting your own family members for moldy crusts of bread as you wallow in your own excrement.,”

This is what I’m enjoying about the current campaign. Yes, the rich are pricks.

And they’re whiners. What most are missing about that Romney performance in front of the 1% is that he’s making excuses, in advance, for while he will lose. The 47% freeloaders will never vote for such a fine, successful man. And the few “independents” vote on “emotion” and “who they like.”

Romney and Jamie Dimon. Two fuckers who complain and whine that we don’t like their technique when they do it to us.

“Map Shows What Happens To New York Airspace When Air Force One Comes To Town”: you should just be grateful to be on the same island as His Majesty the Emperor. Or, indeed, the same continent. In fact, the same planet.

“On 29 May 1842, [Queen] Victoria was riding in a carriage along The Mall, London, when John Francis aimed a pistol at her but the gun did not fire; he escaped. The following day, Victoria drove the same route, though faster and with a greater escort, in a deliberate attempt to provoke Francis to take a second aim and catch him in the act. As expected, Francis shot at her, but he was seized by plain clothes policemen, and convicted of high treason. … Francis’s death sentence was commuted to transportation for life …”

Re: “Susan suspects that the video was made by one of the serving staff at the event. Maybe a union member?”

No, and no. First, there’s simply no unionization in food service in Palm Beach County. Second, even if there was, the servers at this event would not be part of it.

The servers at these sorts of events consist of a very small group of elite waiters who work under separate contract for each event. They are very well paid, and the payments are off the books. They are quite used to working with the ultra-rich, and are necessarily discrete. The work is very easy, as the ultra-rich like to impress each other by over-staffing their events. At an event like this with perhaps 25 guests, for example, there were probably 7 or 8 servers, each earning perhaps $200 for 3-4 hours of light work. As for “bugging” an event like this, if caught, the server would probably have a tough time getting a job at Cracker Barrel afterwards if they ever got caught. It’s too sweet a job, and simply not worth it. (If it’s not obvious already, I used to be one of these servers. In peak season, it’s not unusual to work a half dozen of these a week.)

There is a touch or irony however. Since this work is all under the table, none of the servers pay federal income taxes, and are thus all part of Mitt’s 47%. :-)

Says chinese wages are now about the same as Mexico. They say there is a big increase in US auto and aerospace(!) new factories planned for Mexico. (Who says QE doesn’t work?). I had read that Mexico had a minimum wage law of $4.50, so I don’t know what happened to that. Also read the CPI there is 60% of the US, which doesn’t bode well for the “War on Poverty”. Be sure to keep your cat indoors.

“Indeed, the average salary for Mexican workers was $2.10 per hour in 2011, up 19 percent from $1.72 in 2001, according to HSBC.
By comparison, the average wage in China swelled nearly four-fold during those years to $1.63 per hour in 2011 from 35 cents per hour in 2001. Thus, the difference between labor costs in Mexico and China is now just pennies per hour.

Good question! I wonder if that post was why the NC website was down for a bit… when I got home a while ago I could not get on the website and when I finally did I noticed the fascism post but didn’t have time to read it. Now it’s missing from the list.

The democrats are desperate to believe that money grows on trees, making humans disposable to government, and the republicans are desperate to believe that humans can be replaced by robots, making them expendable. wrong and wrong.